Camelia Skikos_Explore yourself_interview

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Posted on
Jan
2 2017

Photographer Claudia
Goetzelmann

How old were you when you first started developing
an affinity for fashion? And how was that affinity expressed
at first?I was 15 years old and I never thought that
I would choose fashion design as a career. I was studying art
and I realized that designing clothes was the perfect medium to express
myself, rebel, and evade the uniformity of those days. For me
it was just another form of
art.

Your design philosophy stems "from a continuing
fascination with the way garments can make an impact on our lives”.
Is there a personal story that also illustrates this
philosophy?My collections always express a little
bit of tension between something that is more constricted and controlled
and something less inhibited and free. Opposites create
drama. Good and bad inevitably coexist in our lives. Fashion can give a
great amount of freedom to people and no matter what times we
live in, it can allow us to be who we want to
be.

Your collection for Summer 2017 bears
the title «Alter Ego». Why did you pick this
title?My Spring 2017 collection investigates the
possible ways of rendering the concept of identity and belonging of
displaced people around the world. It is about people who have
to leave the place they considered home, with it`s unique
culture and beliefs; it is about becoming a migrant, a hybrid - one more
displaced being of the world. When you leave your country you lose
everything that is familiar to you including a big part of your
identity. You have to reinvent yourself to adapt to a new
culture and contexts so you gain a new identity, an Alter
Ego.

Looking back to the time you first got into the
fashion world as a professional, do you find that some aspects of your
thinking around a collection’s design have changed or evolved
in a specific manner?When I first started to work in
the fashion industry I used to create collections for other companies.
While I think it was an important experience that any designer has to
have before starting their own line I came to a point when I needed more
creative freedom and flexibility. Creating from a place of
freedom rather than normative restrictions based on the ideals of other
companies seemed more appealing to me. I really think that
freedom is essential in order to create. After working for so long for
other companies and designing collections that were rather commercial it
took me a while to find a way to express and design things that
represent who I am. But there is no shortcut for that, I think every
designer has to go through a period of experimentation before
they find themselves and the best way to express who they
are.

Can you recall a garment that has played a
significant role in some intense time or an important event in your
life?The school uniform I had to wear during
communism in Romania. I tried to modify the design of it when I was a
teenager and I got into trouble when I tried to wear it in
such a different way.